Reader discussion: Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Public reader discussion about Adventures of Huckleberry Finn in the WeRead Catalog by Mark Twain.

Is “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” overrated?

By Sonnet_Hardcover77

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is one of those books everyone talks about like it’s a masterpiece, so I went into it expecting a lot. When I started reading, the first few chapters felt kind of slow and not very engaging, but I kept going anyway and before I knew it I was almost done, still not really feeling like it was as amazing as I hoped. Does anyone else feel that way? If you read it and loved it, that’s totally okay, but I keep wondering if I’m missing something here. Is there some cultural or historical importance that makes this book such a big deal?

[Announcement] Adventires of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

By NinaInTucson95

Looks like we’ve got one extra book sneaking into the lineup at the last second. Our monthly core BIPOC author pick winner is James by Percival Everett, and it’s basically a reworking of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. A bunch of us here take our reading pretty seriously though, so we’re trying to read the original first. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain will be starting in just a few weeks—watch this space for the schedule, it should be up any day. Are you planning to join for Huckleberry Finn, James, or both? 📚

"I felt so lonesome I most wished I was dead" - Huck Finn

By inkcrescent275

Controversial, banned, censored — sure, all that comes up with this classic, and obviously there are the messy and uncomfortable questions about racism and slavery too. But it’s also about a kid who sometimes seems almost suicidal in how badly he wants to die. A boy who never really fits anywhere, basically an outsider in every sense. Mostly though, it feels like he’s just desperate for some kind of control in this wild world full of murderers, drifters, and con artists. It’s kind of heartbreaking that Jim is the closest thing he gets to a father, and the times they’re alone together always seem to be when Huck is happiest. Even if there’s a storm going on. One of my favorite lines in the book is this, and it gets me every time: Then I set down in a chair by the window and tried to think cheerful thoughts, but it warn't no use. I felt so lonesome I most wished I was dead. The stars was out, and the leaves kept rustling in the woods all sad-like; and I heard an owl off somewhere hooting about somebody that was dead, and a whippoorwill and a dog crying about somebody that was going to die; and the wind seemed like it was trying to tell me something and I couldn't make it out, and that made the cold shivers go over me. Then way out in the woods I heard a sound like a ghost makes... I got so low and scared I really wished I had somebody with me.

Review of THE ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN

By orbit-eagle48

Hey everyone! This seems like a small hangout for people who really love books and want to chat about them. We’re not only into Indian authors though, so feel free to bring in anything related to reading in general. If you found a book (or an article about one) and want to share it and swap thoughts, or you just finished something and feel like discussing it, or you grabbed a bunch of books and want to show your haul—this place feels like it’s for that. You can also review stuff or link up with reviews you’ve seen online if you want. A few rules though: - No promo stuff. If you really need to promote something, message the mods first. - No pirated links. I’m not trying to get into a debate about piracy, but better to keep it out here. - Also, no spoilers—use the spoiler tag if you have to. You can search by flairs too, and there are sections like Ask Indianbooks, Shelfie, Now Reading, and links to other platforms (Goodreads, Discord).

[Discussion] Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain - Chapter 30 - Chapter the Last

By Superuser

So, uh, we’re back to Tom Sawyer again? Sorry, is this book actually supposed to be Huckleberry Finn? Somebody maybe tell Tom that. Anyway, last time the king and duke had caught up with Huck and Jim, and luckily they’re so awful they end up blaming each other for the money in the coffin. After they get into it in town, Huck finally sees a chance for him and Jim to get away from those two losers. But when he gets back to the raft, Jim’s gone, and Huck finds out from a local that Silas Phelps has taken him. It turns out the king sold Jim out for forty bucks. Because of the fake ad he made, Silas thinks Jim ran off from a New Orleans plantation and that there’s a $200 reward for bringing him back, so yeah, the king just hands him over. Huck feels awful about it and keeps thinking about what the “right” thing would be, which is apparently telling Miss Watson where Jim is. He even writes her a letter, then tears it up, because he decides he’d rather go to Hell than leave Jim. Then Huck shows up at the Phelpses’ farm and Sally immediately thinks he’s her nephew Tom Sawyer. Huck just goes with it and says he needs to go back for his luggage so he can run into the real Tom. When Tom does show up, he’s shocked Huck is alive because he thought he’d been killed, and then gets ridiculously excited about rescuing Jim, which Huck honestly doesn’t expect. The two of them go back and start pretending Tom is actually Tom’s brother Sid. So now Huck is Tom and Tom is Sid, which, sure, seems like a plan that will stay simple. We also find out Jim warned Silas about the king and duke, which got those two chased out of town on a rail. Huck has a pretty normal idea: get the key, free Jim at night, and take off on the raft before anybody notices. But Tom wants everything to be as overblown and nonsense-filled as possible, because of course he does. I’m too tired to list every weird prison-escape thing he makes Jim do, but there’s definitely a sheet rope ladder even though Jim’s on the ground, a fake diary in blood even though Jim can’t read, maybe a cake with a file in it, maybe a Count of Monte Cristo thing, and some flower-watered-with-tears nonsense. This whole stretch goes on way too long, and honestly it’s a lot. Tom also messes with a slave who seems like maybe he’s mentally ill? I hope I’m reading that wrong, because if not, yikes. He also tricks Aunt Sally about stolen spoons and other stuff, which is at least kind of funny. And even then Tom still isn’t satisfied, so he sends anonymous warning notes to the Phelpses, which is why there are now fifteen armed farmers guarding the shack. Huck also tries hiding butter under his hat, it melts, and Aunt Sally thinks his brain is melting too, which I found weirdly hilarious. The escape mostly works, except Tom gets shot in the leg once they’re on the raft. Jim insists Huck go get a doctor, even though that could get him caught, and Huck gives him the whole “I knowed he was white inside” thing. 🙄 Huck tells the doctor that “Sid” shot himself in his sleep and shows him where the raft is. The doctor thinks Huck’s canoe won’t hold both of them, so he tells Huck to wait. Huck falls asleep, and when he wakes up he runs into Uncle Silas. He goes home with Silas, and everyone’s completely confused by the rope ladder, writing on the walls, all of it. The next day the doctor and Jim come back with Tom on a mattress. Jim gets chained up again, but the doctor does say nice things about how Jim took care of Tom. When Tom wakes up, he tells Aunt Sally that he and Huck freed Jim, sort of bragging/confessing at the same time. Then he drops the huge reveal that Jim was actually free the whole time because Miss Watson died and left him free in her will. Tom gives Jim forty dollars later to make up for everything. And if that wasn’t enough, Aunt Polly shows up and reveals Tom and Huck for who they really are. Oh, and Huck’s abusive dad is dead too, so there’s that.

Can Someone Sell Me on Huckleberry Finn's Last Act?

By junipermargin

I’ve seen Huck Finn get called “the Great American Novel” and yeah, that comparison gets thrown around like it’s on the same level as Moby Dick. I haven’t read Tom Sawyer, though, so I’m not judging it from firsthand experience. I do get that people love the character and that Twain’s big on those over-the-top “tall tale” vibes, and I’m trying to meet it halfway. But with Huck Finn, it felt like mostly an awesome road trip and then about 20% goofy nonsense. What’s the point of all the moral stuff Finn learns, and the practical wisdom, and how he finally gets some autonomy—because it all basically gets tossed aside. And then out of nowhere he turns into more of a side character, like the book just switches gears without warning. And honestly, Sawyer didn’t come off likable at all to me. He feels like a narcissistic control freak. He’s basically letting a free guy sit in solitary for weeks just for entertainment. Plus when Finn gets locked up, Sawyer doesn’t step in at all, and when he finally sees Finn again he’s not exactly acting like he’s glad he’s alive after everything. Then toward the end it kind of turns out that Huck and Jim didn’t even have to run from anything, which makes the whole thing feel like character growth got wiped and none of it really mattered. And somehow nobody seems bothered by any of it. So I have to think I’m missing something—like there’s some reason it’s actually brilliant. What am I not getting?

Huckleberry Finn difficulty level?

By Mist_Cocoa2005

Hey everyone, quick question about how hard *The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn* is. I finished *Crime and Punishment* already, and when I skimmed *Huckleberry Finn* it felt like it might be more difficult than *Crime and Punishment* for some reason. Does anyone know if that’s actually true, and how the difficulty compares?

Discussion: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain [spoiler-free]

By wanderingpanda1982

I’d probably put Huckleberry Finn at or near the top if we’re talking about the Great American Novel. It seems like it started out as just a straightforward boy adventure thing, basically a follow-up to Tom Sawyer, but Twain turned it into something way bigger and more layered. Even now people still argue about what Huck and Jim’s trip really means, so it hasn’t exactly gone stale. You can read it just as a great adventure story, but it also works as one of the big classics of American humor.

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain

By CloverKey58536

I remember reading that the first time when I was like 10 and thinking, “Wow, that’s actually really cool and smart.” But going back to it now, I’m just sitting here like, “Uh… how does that even make sense?”

Discussion: Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

By deer_river

Here’s the Gutenberg link, and here’s the spoiler-free discussion too.

THE ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN by Mark Twain - FULL AudioBook in English

By moonRibbon505

It really feels like Twain was writing different chunks of the book at different times—the tone changes a lot, especially around the Grangerfords part. Like it’s dramatic, you can’t miss it. And Tom Sawyer in here is honestly a total psycho. They try to make it funny, but if you stop and think about it for more than like two seconds, it’s pretty villain-y.

I really didn't like Huckleberry Finn's ending. Which book did you enjoy...except for the ending?

By comfortCreek

I really liked Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain. It’s got plenty of adventure, but it also makes you think about a bunch of heavy stuff—things like social rules, hypocrisy, poverty, racism, slavery, freedom, friendship, and all that. The only thing that threw me was the ending. It honestly shocked me, and not in a good way. Right when Tom Sawyer shows up, it feels like the whole serious situation (I don’t want to spoil anything) gets treated like it’s all some kind of game, and the mood of the book just flips. I was not expecting that at all. It’s almost like Twain was working on one type of story and then the ending from a totally different version got stuck on. I don’t really know what happened there. I’m curious if other people felt the same way, because it doesn’t seem like a lot of folks talk about it. I guess it gets drowned out by the whole discussion around the N word. Has anyone else had a book where you were having a great time and then the ending just made you mad?

Do you feel like teachers should issue a warning about books like "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn"? By warning, I mean a simple, "What I am about to read reflects the time period, etc etc".

By Ink_Orchid

In my own experience, we read *The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn* in class, and my white teacher didn’t really give any warning or mention anything for people who hadn’t read it before. He handed out the book, said a little bit about Twain and what we were about to read, and then just went straight into chapter one. When the N word came up, people in class seemed kind of shocked that he was saying it like that, with no heads-up about where the book was going. That was really the only part that bugged me. I do think it matters to remember history, but I also feel like before reading books like this, it wouldn’t hurt to give a quick reminder that some of the language reflects the time it was written. What do you think? Should teachers at least warn students first?

Help I can't stand The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn!

By InkNight

I recently figured I’d try some of the classics for once. I really liked Tom Sawyer — it was easy, short, and just kind of fun. Huck was such a good character that I thought, okay, his book should be next. But wow. I get that Huck and Jim aren’t educated, but reading all their dialogue is a real slog and it’s making the whole thing drag. And “by-and-by” keeps popping up so much that it’s starting to feel ridiculous, though maybe I’m being too sensitive about that. Someone please tell me it improves. I’m about 90 pages in and I really don’t want to quit halfway.

My Fellow Americans, Which Mark Twain Classic Do You Consider Superior? Tom Sawyer or Huckleberry Finn?

By Paper-Teal83

I really hope this question is “American enough” that we can actually answer it properly without it getting weird. Like, come on—do you honestly think the French are going to know much about American literature?

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

By SkyBookmark7

I just wrapped up The Adventures of Tom Sawyer earlier this month, and I kept thinking about that idea that reading is like talking with the author. With Tom Sawyer, it felt like Twain was kind of grinning at me and pointing back to my own silly, carefree kid days. It was light, easy, and reminded me of when life just felt simple. Huckleberry Finn is a whole different thing, way heavier. Twain doesn’t feel like he’s holding up a mirror there so much as getting ready to have a much more serious talk. A talk about people, really. I have a lot of respect for that, especially since he was doing it back in the 1880s, not long after the Civil War and near the end of Reconstruction. He was saying this to people who were deeply stuck in the idea that race decided everything. That was an ugly conversation then, and honestly it still is now. While reading Huckleberry Finn, I kept feeling like Twain was also talking a lot about abuse. Huck and Jim both go through all kinds of it from the people they run into, some of it obvious and some of it more hidden. Huck gets pushed around by Ms. Watson, by his father, by the Duke and the King, even by Tom Sawyer, his own friend. His drunk dad keeps beating on him and almost kills him during one of his drunken rages. Jim, who really comes across as a man with dignity, is treated badly over and over by basically every white person in the book. It’s hard to read, uncomfortable too, but I think it has to be there. Tom and Huck mess with him in ways that are pretty cruel, even though Jim sees them as his friends. The King and that old doctor sell him out after he’s been helping them and being decent to them. He’s always running, always hiding, never really safe because getting caught could be around the next bend of the river. Jim feels like a picture of what black people had to deal with in free America in the 1800s, and honestly what anyone different can still run into sometimes in the U.S. today. But if part of this is about how people abuse each other, the other part is about what happens when people actually care about one another like brothers and sisters. Like I said, this is a talk about humanity. You see that in Huck over and over as the book goes on. At first he’s just a rough, untrained kid, basically as clueless about what black people are going through as everyone else around him in Missouri. In his world, slaves are just normal, like cats being pets. But the more time he spends alone with Jim, the more real Jim becomes to him. He sees Jim crying because he won’t see his wife anymore. He sees how much it hurts Jim when he remembers finding out his daughter is deaf. He hears the fear and anger when Jim thinks he’s lost Huck in the fog, and then the love Jim keeps showing him whenever Huck comes back after they’ve been apart. Huck ends up realizing he can’t be without Jim, and Twain writes that part so strongly. Huck is fighting with himself the whole time, stuck between doing the “right” thing and writing that letter to the Widow Douglas, or helping Jim escape and risking hell: “I felt good and all washed clean of sin for the first time I had ever felt so in all my life... ‘All right, then, I’ll go to hell.’” That whole moment is brutal, but it lands. That’s the heart of it for me. Everything else in the story feels like it’s built around that. Brotherhood, looking after another person, loving your neighbor. That’s the salvation part, the awakening part. Twain’s Reconstruction conversation still feels right now just as much as then. “It’s the little things that smoothes people's roads the most.”

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn - First Edition in Publisher's Blue Cloth

By Red_Field

Hey everyone, This is my first time posting here. I was going through a pile of books at a garage sale and ended up grabbing this one for a pretty good price. Does anyone have any idea what something like this might be worth? The condition isn’t great, and there was a note tucked inside saying there were some errors in it, so I’m not sure if that actually makes it more valuable or just less. I’m probably going to bring it to a local rare-book place to get an appraisal, but I’ve looked around online and I’ve seen copies listed anywhere from a couple grand to way higher, mostly for ones in better shape. Any thoughts? Also, quick edit: the spine isn’t as messed up as it looks in the first picture—the image must’ve glitched. Here’s a better shot of the spine: https://imgur.com/a/yrRXhpn

Why 'Huckleberry Finn' is the least racist book ever...

By AquaWinter1987

I don’t really get how anyone could call this racist if they’ve actually read it. Sure, it drops the “N” word a lot, but that feels more like it’s showing the time period than blaming an entire race. It’s kind of like when Shakespeare uses rough language—people don’t call the whole thing racist just because of that. To me, the main idea boils down to that moment where Huck decides slavery is wrong and he’d rather take the punishment (even think he’ll go to hell) than let Jim be enslaved again. He’s been taught his whole life that freeing someone is a sin, so when it’s his choice, he goes with what’s right anyway. So yeah… I really think this is an anti-racist book.

Should I read Tom Sawyer before Huckleberry Finn?

By comfortOcean23056

Maybe you could, but Huck Finn really works on its own—I think it’s a masterpiece.

First edition of Huckleberry finn

By Crimson-Hare

My mom has this book and she says it’s a first edition and it’s signed by Mark Twain. How can I tell if that’s actually true? Also, about how much would something like this be worth? Thanks in advance.